EPA Awards $75K to RIT Students for Solar Oven Design

A team of engineering majors from Rochester Institute of Technology won first place and $75,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its design of a low-cost solar oven for use in developing countries in Latin America. The EPA’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P³) Award recognized “innovative solutions for an environmentally sustainable future.” RIT’s seven-member interdisciplinary student team was one of seven teams honored last month in Washington among 65 teams and 400 students.

About two billion of the Earth’s 6.4 billion inhabitants burn organic material such as wood in daily cooking, according to the RIT team, led by Emma Fulton, a fifth-year industrial and systems engineering major. The use of solar ovens for cooking and water pasteurization reduces wood consumption, deforestation, air pollution and related health problems. The RIT-produced solar oven—constructed of glass, particleboard and used offset printing plates—can be built at a cost of $32.33, about one-fourth the price of a comparable commercially made solar oven. Mass production would further lower the cost.

The EPA provided selected universities with initial funding of $10,000 for phase one research and design. Rochester’s “lack of sunshine” and relatively high average wind speed presented testing challenges, RIT team members say.

The RIT team consisted of five undergraduate engineering majors participating in their multidisciplinary senior design capstone and two graduate students. Team members traveled twice to South America to gather information from potential users in rural areas and to investigate local materials and labor skill sets. They were guided by advisors Andres Carrano and Brian Thorn, professors of industrial and systems engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

The EPA’s P³ Award, created last year, highlights “people, prosperity and the planet—the three pillars of sustainability,” according to the agency. RIT students were recognized in the biology/life sciences category. Teams exhibited designs on the National Mall in Washington and awards were presented by William Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering, May 16-17.

“The originality and breadth of these projects demonstrates the high degree of innovation and environmental interest that exist on college campuses today,” says Timothy Oppelt, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “These young students represent the scientific leadership of tomorrow.”

“These students are an exceptional group of individuals that represented the Kate Gleason College of Engineering and RIT very well,” adds Jacqueline Mozrall, RIT associate professor and head of industrial and systems engineering.

Note: For more information, visit the following Web sites:

http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/7324/report/0
http://es.epa.gov/ncer/p3/